Sunday, November 28, 2010

Snow at the Farm

First snow at the farm. On the grass and in the shaded places. Not enough to be inconvenient. Not enough to shovel or even sweep. But snow nonetheless. Not especially beautiful as first snows can be—but merely white stuff mixed in with the browns and greens. A not so subtle reminder of winter that waits like a bully to pummel a victim, sending a light jab to garner attention.

Fourteen degrees this morning as a cold, late November sun reluctantly crawls out of the east. Weather person says low forties today. Enough warmth to melt the snow and send winter back north, at least for a bit. But winter will return as it always has. Those of us living in the north would have it no other way. Some of us anyway.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: If you put all of your eggs in one basket, be sure to keep your eye on the basket.

CHECK THIS OUT: Listen to an online interview about my new novel, CRANBERRY RED. Go to: http://www.wuwm.com/programs/lake_effect/le_sgmt.php?segmentid=6674

WUWM: Lake Effect - Cranberry Red

UPCOMING EVENTS:
December 2, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Cranberry Red.

December 4, 10:30-2:30. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red.

December 9, 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Library.

December 11, 10 to 2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

The Hunter and the Crow

Second morning of deer season. Foggy, misty, 32 degrees. I’m sitting on a wooden bench overlooking my prairie. I see a world of browns, tans and greens—the browns and tans from the dead grass and wildflowers. The greens from the pine trees—those that I planted, and those that grew on their own—red pine, white pine, jack, pine and Scotch.

Not a sound, profound quiet. No movement of wild creatures—they know better on a day like this. They stay hunkered down, out of the weather, different from their blaze orange fellow creatures who try not to let a little mist and fog, and cold and damp change their plans.

Then I hear it, to the west, in those few acres I call my oak woodlot, the sound of a lone crow. Just one. Out in the weather. Just me and a brave crow--I’d like to think the bird is brave, but maybe it’s as crazy as I am.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Change is not always progress.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

December 2, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Cranberry Red.

December 4, 10:30-2:30. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red.

December 9, 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Library.

December 11, 10 to 2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Corn Harvesting

The big corn combines are mostly silent now, the corn crop harvested. How different harvesting corn when I was growing up. Then, we cut the standing corn with a corn binder pulled by a team or horses. Once cut, my dad, brothers and I stood the corn bundles into corn shocks that marched across the cornfield like so many Indian tepees.

After a few weeks, a corn shredder arrived at the farm, a smaller version of a threshing machine. The corn shredder (perhaps better called a corn husker) removed the ears of corn from the stalks and cut up the stalks that were blown into our barn for later use as bedding for our cows. The yellow ears of husked corn tumbled into a wagon. When the wagon was full, we forked the cobs into the corn crib.

Corn shredding involved several of the neighbors, just as did threshing. It took a couple of weeks for the corn shredder to make the rounds of the neighbors, tending to each farmer’s corn crop, and leaving the corn fields with rows of corn stubble. With good fall weather, the naked corn fields were plowed down in preparation for the following year’s oat crop. No successive crops of corn on the same field which is often the case today.

The corn combine has made the process of corn harvesting considerably easier—but I miss seeing the corn shocks, true symbols of fall. (Travel in Amish country and you can still see them).


THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Better to remain silent and thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.


UPCOMING EVENTS:

November 16, 7:00 p.m. Reedsburg Library, Cranberry Red

December 2, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Cranberry Red.

December 4, 10:30-2:30. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red.

December 9, 7:00 p.m. Stoughton Library.

December 11, 10 to 2:00 p.m. Fireside Books, West Bend.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

National Farm Toy Show

They came from throughout the country, from Canada and several other countries. They gathered at Dyersville, Iowa, a little town west of Dubuque. Farmers mostly, those who still worked the land, and those who were retired but knew the stories of farming and farm life. Often three generations together, grandparents, mom and dad, and the grandkids. Looking at toy tractors and swapping “I remember when stories.” So many stories, nonstop stories from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon.

I sat behind a table piled high with my books as folks stopped by to chat. Their caps identified them—John Deere, Allis Chalmers, International Harvester, Oliver. Their caps told me which tractor was their choice and the source of their stories. Their sweat shirts carried on their infatuation with a certain kind of tractor: “Real friends don’t allow their friends to drive red tractors.” (A John Deere tractor lover for those who don’t know about the friendly competition between red (International) and green (John Deere) tractors.

One little boy—lots of kids of all sizes and ages attended—wore a shirt with the words “I was born in a barn” plastered across the front.
“Were you really born in a barn?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said smiling. His mother was smiling, too.

Other sweatshirt messages: “Real men use duct tape,” “My tractor’s my first love,” and “Still plays with tractors.”

A cute little boy’s sweat shirt said: “Dirt Rocks.” Another little boy’s shirt: “I move dirt.”

Some 10,000 plus folks attended the event—most of them walked by my table at one time or another. I even signed a book or two.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: Always remember, as through life you roll, to keep your eye on the doughnut and not on the hole.

CHECK THIS OUT: Tune in Wisconsin Public Radio on November 9, Larry Meiller show, 11:45-12:30. Discussion of my novel, Cranberry Red.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

November 9, Larry Meiller Show, Wisconsin Public Radio, 11:45-12:30, Cranberry Red.

November 13, 9:30 a.m. Sheboygan Falls Library, Horse Drawn Days.

November 16, 7:00 p.m. Reedsburg Library, Cranberry Red

December 2, 7:00 p.m. McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, Cranberry Red.

December 4, 10:30-2:30. Dregne’s Scandinavian Gifts, Westby. Book signing for Barns of Wisconsin, Horse Drawn Days, and Cranberry Red.